Virgin Media sorry for issuing a late payment penalty to a dead man

'Sorry he didn't pay, he was dead,'

You may have seen a photo shared on your Facebook news feed on Wednesday in relation to Virgin Media's demands for a £10 late payment charge on the monthly bill of a dead man. Most people did.

The picture of the bill and a strongly-worded, yet humourous message was uploaded by Jim Boydon, the son-in-law of the deceased. It went rival on Wednesday and sparked some good, old fashioned British outrage.

Well now, the ISP and TV provider has issued a humbling apology following the embarrassing incident, refunded the cash, donated money to a hospice and vowed to get to the bottom of the matter.

A spokesperson said: "We've spoken to the family and offered our sincerest apologies as automated responses from banks should not appear on customer bills. We have a team in place to ensure bereavements are managed sensitively and are investigating how this happened. Once Mr Boyden brought this to our attention on Facebook, we sought to identify his father in law's account straight away which we have since closed with late payment charges removed."

It probably slipped his mind

The original bill, which was shared over 100,000 times on Facebook, featured the wording "D.D Denied - Payer deceased," yet somehow Virgin Media made the oversight and applied the late charge anyway.

Mr. Boydon was particularly peeved by this and wrote on Facebook: "I'm really sorry for my father-in-law not paying his bill last month, but what with him being dead and all, it's probably slipped his mind.

"You also deserve a further honourable mention for promptly sending us next month's bill as well. I'm simply not paying it as, ever since passing away, I have noticed a sharp decrease in the amount of television my father-in-law has been watching. I simply cannot think why that would be."